


in the audience

by handyhunter



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-19
Updated: 2011-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-17 03:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handyhunter/pseuds/handyhunter





	in the audience

Toph removes her slippers, sinks her feet into the mud and happily wriggles her toes under her cumbersome dress. It’s new, slightly too big, and smells funny, like it’s been stored in a trunk for a while; it’s a present from her parents. She can feel the weight of her mother’s horrified disapproval aimed at the back of her head, and pretends she’s too far away to hear her mother telling her to stop fidgeting while the Fire Lord speaks.

It’s another version of the ‘this is a new era of peace and rebuilding’ speech. Toph’s heard it before -- Zuko practiced it yesterday, pacing back and forth across the library. Incidentally, that was where Toph and Smellerbee had set up a game of pi sho. Toph was becoming quite adept at feeling out the tiles with just one brush of her thumb, but her concentration broke when Zuko set his speech on fire.

She imagines she can still smell the singed edges of his scroll from here.

“What’s so funny?” Smellerbee asks.

Toph grins widely. “Zuko.” He’s well into his speech now, and most of his nervousness has faded away.

Smellerbee is on her toes, straining to see above the crowd, so Toph gives her a little boost and earthbends the two of them a small, raised platform. Behind them, the Boulder issues a protest, but Toph ignores him. She sits down, wrinkling her skirts, and dangles her feet over the edge.

“Thanks,” says Smellerbee, when Toph returns them to ground height after Zuko’s speech is over.

“No problem.” Toph punches her lightly on the arm. “Now, lead me to the food!”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Words Get in the Way](https://archiveofourown.org/works/178518) by [terajk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/terajk/pseuds/terajk)




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